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About Dave Stubbs
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Dave Stubbs
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Dave Stubbs has been a sportswriter since 1976, which was roughly a decade after he wore the first of many holes through the knees of his jeans playing nets in road hockey (using a modified butterfly popularized by Hall of Famer Glenn Hall). He still has the welts to show on his shins from that rotten, frozen orange ball.
Stubbs kept thick hockey scrapbooks filled with game summaries and Gazette and Montreal Star stories, collected dozens of Bee Hive Corn Syrup photos and put a fortune of hockey cards through the spokes of his bikes. First book ever owned: Scrubs On Skates, the classic by Scott Young (Neil's dad).
Stubbs's fantasy is to travel back in time to the 1950s and watch the great Canadiens dynasty that won five consecutive Stanley Cups. Or a decade earlier, to watch Elmer Lach centre Rocket Richard and Toe Blake on the fearsome Punch Line. Or at least to get Rogie Vachon into the Hockey Hall of Fame – where he belongs.
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HAL GILL! im happy with that!
------------------------ Vive La Sainte-Flanelle!
low expectations you have
Very well said Ali.
A word to all of the inane posters who had diarrhea of the mouth since yesterday noon:
Now, Spacek is a 45 point D-man with a solid D and a very good support offensively is better, neigh much better than an Ohlund signing. And the price paid is very good.
So, why in f**k you people are so malcontent and still bitching and cussing to Gainey? If it's because you dislike him, that's your choice but that doesn't give you the right to be so full sh*t and negativism. Most, if not all of you are clueless because you have absolutely no personal experience as an NHL player, coach or GM and you all think of yourselves as God's gift to humanity in terms of how to run an NHL team.
Give a good shake to your collective heads and try to find some sense and decency (maybe your brains will fall into right position to work better). You may not be happy with the Management, trades and signings for whatever the reason (yes Vinny is not leaving TB, get used to it) BUT Enough already from this diarrhea.
And don't bother to reply to me b/c I'm not going to give the time of the day to this crap.
Ali B.
I say measure peoples credibility before criticizing them for being negative. I seen positive posters be wrong on just about everything last year but yet get guffaws for being positive, what is this- a glee club? So its not fair to put people in the 'he complains alot therefore hes unreasonable' The truth is the fans havent had a lot to cheer for.
well said
and who are you exactly ...a GM .... stop making a fool of yourself skippy
At a boy Ali, it is just that they don,t know how much they are missing in this sport by not enjoying the building process. I am having a ball watching all the wheels turn.
We are moving up in the talent department again, keep it going Bob.
The complainers will always be there, but they really know more than you now don't they!
I'm sure Bob is grateful to have you remind us how great he is, I prefer to let his actions speak for his competency. I am not complaining. I feel closer to that First overall draft pick next season.
The only way Gainey can make me love him again is if he can get Ovechkin for Kostopoulos in a straight trade
For those wondering about the length of Hossa's contract (and wisdom thereof), I believe the reasoning is this:
1) cap hit is calculated by the average value of the contract over the entire length of the contract. In this case a little over $5M
2) Presumably the cap would go up relative to the entire length of the contract (there may be some down or flat years, but the overall trend would be up)
3) Usually contracts like these (and Franzen's and the like) are front loaded. Teams like Chicago and Detroit (and Montreal for that matter) have the wherewithal to pay them big money, above and beyond the cap. Then when these stars get old and decrepit, they can be bought out for relatively little. I'm not sure, but I think the buyout doesn't count against the cap.
So in essence the team wins -- and effectively gets around the cap. And the player wins by getting long term financial stability. So much for the CBA leveling the playing surface.
"Then when these stars get old and decrepit, they can be bought out for relatively little. I'm not sure, but I think the buyout doesn't count against the cap.
So in essence the team wins -- and effectively gets around the cap. And the player wins by getting long term financial stability. So much for the CBA leveling the playing surface."
I am not sure either as I don't have the CBA, but I believe this was previously discussed and the consensus is that the remaining cap hit is spread out over double the number of years remaining on the contract. The team may only pay out what is left on the contract, but the cap hit remains. Its just spread out longer.
Wrong .. .you cant buy out a player over 35,
LOL Peter my old friend from another thread. As I said, I am not sure, but from what I remember, you are correct, IF the player signs when he is over 35. In the example being discussed (Hossa), if that is the case, that would not apply. However, I must be mistaken as according to you, I am just plain wrong. Wish I knew it all like you. ;-)
At least will we get the first pick next year
"The Canadiens win the Stanley Cup"
i dunno why you guys are flipping.
I always liked Spacek..he is a good dman.
--- we need a kovalev
WTF is Gainey doing? Spacek, really??? We want you to make some moves but please make us better, not worse!!!!!! Maybe a psych evaluation is needed?
Don't worry, they will be moving to Hamilton and they won't be kicked around by their fans there.
Ohlund...25pts
Spacke....45pts
Why is this a bad signing...other than just to bitch.
Very good deal, Spacek, a puck moving D. Improvement over Komi. Also Kovalev is close to signing for 2 years 9 mil.
Seems like Martin likes two way players like Spacek and Gomez. Huge improvement over Higgins and Komi.
Spacek....OMG!!! Who is the top prospect in next years draft?
Spacek to MTL...3 years 11.5 Million
PIERRE BOIVIN and BOB GAINEY must be smoking some good weed today.
"We will win the Cup one day only with a mature Carey Price in the nets"
I am going to cry
There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
report that the habs have signed jaroslav spakec from buffolo 3 years 11.5 whjy o why this better not be true
if this is true im going to hang myself
It looks like it's true at about a million less than Beauchemin was asking, but whats a million when you can afford Gomez.
SPACEK TO MONTREAL
You people should do your research before you start crying about everything bob does ....Spacek is a solid d-man comparable to Beauchemin in many ways he scores points , can quarterback the pp and is solid defensively...
and is 35 years old.
Our 4 centers at this time are, Lang, Gomes, Koivu and Lapierre until further notice!
Ian, Lang is not signed and Metropolit is. In fact, Lang is no longer even on the Canadiens web page. UFAs like Komi are still there. So I take that to mean they have decided not to make an offer to Lang, period. So that makes it Gomez, Lapierre, Metropolit. Koivu is very iffy as well, while Pleks is at least a RFA. So at this point it looks more like Gomez, Pleks, Lapierre and Metropolit. Subject to trades and signings of course.
edit: okay, you are right...6 centres, at least until a trade or Saku signs elsewhere. Apparently he has had a couple of offers, but wants to see what Bob has to say.
Sorry I mean 6 centers with Metropolit and Pleckanic until we are informed differently.
"Our 4 centers at this time are, Lang, Gomes, Koivu and Lapierre until further notice!"
Lang is a UFA.
The Habs have emploded!!!
God bless you Gainey, you were a fantastic player and G.M for the Stars, but It's time to say good bye. Have some respect for this once great organization and step down, the pressure of the french/English politics that have grown to an almost boil have done you In. The habs at some point have to stop relying on a french superstar or simply french players and choose the best players possible, french or English. The 70's are long gone no more richard's, lafleur's, savard's etc... their are only decent to bad french players coming out of that joke of a league In quebec. The good french players go early to other teams in the draft and the players that are established are too hot to trade to the Habs. At least we have some garbage french players to fill the stands, they won't be going anywhere because nobody else wants them.
The habs have to stop the politics to succeed, period.
"The Canadiens win the Stanley Cup"
Chicken Little?
RDS reports that Saku Koivu has heard from a couple of teams today but is waiting to see what the Canadiens do, as he would love to return to Montreal.
What is the min amount to payroll allowed?
This is the team I dreamed up, pre-Gomez. Not a team that I'd be totally happy with but I figured at least close to acceptable and competitive.
Tang(4) Koivu(3.25) Kovy(3.75)
AKost(3.35) Antropov(3) SKost(.585)
Neil(1.5) Pleks(2.25) Higgy(2.25)
Lats(1.25) Laps(.800) Laraque(1.5)
Markov(5.75) Beauch(4)
Hammer(5.5) Oduya(3)
Georges(1.1) Dandy(1.5)
Goalies(3)
Metro(1), O'Byrne(1), Boullion(1.5)
Cap Hit $55 million
As you can see I have grossly underpaid these players. So then how do we improve this team by overpaying even more for other FAs. Consider that I'm not totally happy with this fictitious team I've created.
Fortunately, Weber, Max Pac and D'ags give us some flexibility and of course good trades are an option.
I'm not trying to be a downer, I'm just illustrating how quickly cap space disappears even for a mediocre team.
My question is if you are not happy w/your fictitious team why on earth did you post it?
Because the 55 mil cap hit you posted is wrong and includes our UFA's that are not signed yet, or will not be signed at all (Bouillon), traded away (Higgins) or other UFA's that may never be signed by the Habs or the ones that already have signed elsewhere.
If you take out the total you have assigned to those players than your cap hit falls to 34 mil. Even with Gomez' pay we still have a pretty healthy margin (about 15 mil) for more signings. The problem is, who among the players that we would like to see in CH uniform which ones will want to come here? That's the 64 mil dollar question.
Ali B.
The price is going down for the remainder, we are at 5 million for our next 3 signings and 4 million for our 2nd 3 signings. Lots of young kids for us at home to fill the holes.
We need 4 forwards and 2 D, with lots of cap left.
With Gomez making 8 mil. next year, why in the world would Kovy be content to sign for 4.4? Kovy was likely signed up until the Gomez move, now he's looking for greener pastures.
Kovalev for 5 million only
12 years? and people (myself included) are balking at Gomez's salary cap hit.
12 freaking years for a guy who quit on the Senators many, many times..(trust me I watched it live here) I would think Chicago will regret signing him in the long run, but in the meantime he's a very good 2 way player with a scoring touch that is elite level. I question his heart..I really do. Gomez has twice the heart of this guy and I am not a big Gomez fan.
Heading out on the boat again. Yesterday, got home and the Gomez deal was done.
Hopefully tonight, things will be more interesting.
Bring back Eric Chouinard!
What is Chicogo going to do when all there young players need more bucks in a year or two. Maybe we get a shot at them. 12 years for a guy who plays for the name on his back!!
Hey Ian how do you like all the new players that Bob has signed with that huge cap room? Still think we are in the top third of the league? I only wish we had Chicago's problems.
Not to worry my friend, we just don't know how much other teams are willing to bid for Kovalev, Tanguay, Lang and Koivu. Bob's offer is on the table and they are going to have to decide if they want to stay. Players call! If it is no and they want to move on, see ya.
Bob is not going to blow his whole cap today!
We will be a more competitive team than last once the kids get some playing time on regular lines.
I'm really looking forward to getting the #1 pick in next year's draft.
ya seriously . a big body down the middle and great price for 2 years...sigh...man ....$@@$$@@#
hmmmm....let me see komo, armstrong and orr make TO a much tougher team to play against . Komo playing with Luke Schenn...this make me sick if it happens . Komo in TO is a strong rumour .
Brasheer to Rangers...
Go Habs Go!
Don't worry. all the habs that leave, will be replaced by cute little smurfs from Hamilton.
These guys will win a cup in a few uears.
12 years for hossa...lmao.
Hossa would have been nice.....12 years??? I don't think so..
go habs go!
$5MM per year cap hit is very reasonable though.
Mats Sundin is looking like a viable option.
Why is everyone concerned about aging wingers who do not perform in the playoffs? I am much more concerned about our inability to attract Bouwmeester and watching the other Eastern teams fill their needs. Not star signings, but improvements. The Habs are not standing still ... they are going backwards at this point.
I am a long time committed Gainey fan but beginning to think I have been blind.
Boumeester wanted to play in western canada... is the word.
... and Heatley wants out of Ottawa but not to go to Edmonton, and so on. Was Bouwmeester really unattainable? My point is, Montreal has become the issue. It's not the GM's incompentence but that something has to be done to make Mtl. a desirable destination and I think the team management has it within its power to do that. Exactly how, I am not sure.
But meanwhile, the Isles got better with Roloson. Philly is better with Pronger. T.B. appears to be making progress. I am not sure, but I fear the Leafs are better. And the Habs?
I thought Kovy already signed with us. I read here 2 yrs 8.8M
LA is bidding and have a good crack at him
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=432992
That's the word...
Either Gaborik or Havlat are star players if they stay healthy.
Gionta and Antropov to the Habs?
Kovalev is being courted by LA
Is there a website I can go to check the Habs signings so far?
Yup, www.ripoff.com
I hearya!
And another one bites the dust.
Jeez, pick up the slack already!
Make , GOOD/SMART (mainly financially) , moves for crying out loud...
12 years = LMFAO. Is there a NTC with that? I thought I was shocked by the Gomez trade, but 12 years?
why would anyone sign someone for 12 years?
To get an affordable cap price. these contracts are loaded up front and toward the end dimish to make it easy to buyout as an option or trade as a role player if their skills diminish.
I believe DiPietro's and Vinny's contracts were the culprits (or the teams that offered those idiotic contracts). Does Ovechkin have a 12 year too?
IMO, if a player agrees to such a contract because of his greed, there's a good chance that later on he may regret that and end up being stuck with that team and won't be able to get traded even if he wishes to (Vinny?), especially if that team tanks a la Isles or TB.
Ali B.
He obviously did not want to play here!
It's going to be a long seasooooon!
reported for just over 5mil a season. gomez 8 mil, hossa 5 mil.... good deal bob
..and how does Hossa alone make us a better hockey team? Gomez is the type of player that can make his entire linemates better....
and who exactly does he have on this team as of today to make better assuming you were right?
Deuce ... who did Gomez make better in NY ?
Would Ryan Callahan be a 20+ goal scorer without Gomez?
Would Zherdev have had the success he had last season without Gomez?
Besides, let's not base a player's career on 1 or 2 seasons...He has been a consistent performer in all aspects of the game and every where on thie ice for his entire career...He is the type of player that can distribute the puck to his mates and make them much better..If AK flanks him, I expect him to have a career year..